So far, Steven Bailey’s Cornelius & Anthony has been releasing some really impressive cigars. The Venganza, their latest release, follows the Cornelius and Daddy Mac, and manages to continue the company’s streak of excellent cigars. The Venganza is a full bodied cigar coming from Erik Espinosa’s La Zona Factory in Estelí. With its full body and flavor, the Venganza is likely to be the company’s most successful release yet.

Pre-Light: Featuring the standard turn of the century Cornelius & Anthony band with a red secondary brand, the Venganza continues the classic look established by past Cornelius & Anthony releases. The rich medium brown Ecuadorian Habano wrapper has an almost leather like appearance.

From the Habano wrapper there is a strong leather aroma with just a slight barnyard hint. The unlit foot has a mixture of leather, nuts and barnyard hay notes. An easy cold draw allows through flavors of leather, nuts, coffee and spice.

Burn: The Venganza has a perfect draw, and allows through plenty of smoke. Although the burn on one of the three cigars smoked for this review could be a bit wavy, it always corrected itself with no need for touch-ups from a lighter. The Venganza holds a gray ash firmly that only falls when purposely ashed.

Flavor: From the initial puffs of the Cornelius & Anthony Venganza has an intriguing flavor profile; there are sweet wood and coffee-like notes, followed by a unique blend of pepper and spice. As the first third continues, a earthiness begins to occur, which compliments the existing pepper flavor. Wood, coffee, pepper and spice are all present during the first third of the cigar. On the retrohale there is a strong black pepper flavor. Once the second third of the Venganza gets going there is a mix of coffee, cocoa, pepper, earth and a very subtle leather and cedar flavors. Throughout the cigar the pepper increases then fades to the background before increasing again; it makes for a very original effect on the flavor profile. At the transition to the final third begins, the pepper is in the foreground of the flavor profile again. Coffee, cedar, nuts, pepper, cocoa, leather and a nice meatiness all occur during the second third of the Cornelius & Anthony Venganza. The Venganza finishes with a strong mix of coffee and pepper notes.

Overall: After two stellar releases like the Cornelius and the Daddy Mac the bar for the Vengaza was set very high, yet the latest Cornelius & Anthony provides another great smoking experience. The Vengaza is a full bodied cigar with a strength that creeps up on you because the cigar’s full flavor. Pepper and spice notes mix with coffee, earth, cedar and leather for pleasing experience on the palate. In their second collaboration with Erik Espinosa’s La Zona Factoy may be better than the first (which was quite good). Medium and full bodied cigar smokers should find the Venganza to be right up their ally. Personally, I really enjoyed the Cornelius & Anthony Venganza, and thought that it was one of the best cigars that I smoked at this year’s IPCPR in Las Vegas.

Pairing: The Cornelius & Anthony pairs well with a wide variety of alcoholic beverages. Personally, I found the Venganza really compliments a dram of Dalmore 18 or Glenfarclas 21.

Cigars for this review were provided by Cornelius & Anthony Cigars. No request for review was made. Cornelius & Anthony is now a brand sponsor of Toasted Foot, but was not at the time that this review was written. Although their support is greatly appreciated it does not alter the Overall Rating of this cigar. At Toasted Foot LLC we remain committed to providing fair and impartial cigar and product reviews to our readers.